Agriculture and FoodDevelopmentEconomicsEducationEmploymentEnergyEnvironmentFinance and InvestmentGovernanceIndustry and ServicesNuclear EnergyScience and TechnologySocial Issues/Migration/HealthTaxationTradeTransportUrban, Rural and Regional Development

Small Change or Real Change?

Commonwealth Perspectives on Financing Gender Equality

It is now generally recognised that gender equality is essential for sustained economic growth and for democracy, peace and security. Small Change or Real Change? Commonwealth Perspectives on Financing Gender Equality presents key thinking from experts around the world on a topic that is currently of great international concern: how to ensure that sufficient financial resources are available – both through the new aid modalities and from domestic sources – to effect the necessary changes to make gender equality a reality.

The chapters cover the full range of issues around financing gender equality, including implementation of the aid agenda, the implications for gender equality of financing HIV and AIDS interventions, the impacts of trade policies on key sources of financing and women’s need for equal access to affordable finance. Of particular concern is the importance of tracking the gender impact of aid resources (including post-conflict aid) through mechanisms such as gender-responsive budgets and aid effectiveness approaches.

The contributors, all of them development practitioners though from diverse backgrounds, share one common goal: to influence governments, bilateral and multilateral organisations to scale up their commitments to financing gender equality and thus not only make a real difference to the lives of women around the world but also reduce poverty and promote sustainable development.

Introduction

‘Women count. Count them up, and you reach 3 billion – half the people on this planet. Dis-count them, and you reach the state we’re in, where half of the people on this planet bear considerably more than half of its problems…. Our united voice must say that, for real development effectiveness, gender has to be at its heart.’ — Don McKinnon, Commonwealth Secretary-General (2000–2008)1